Yeah, that's right. The USPS has overpaid the Civil Service Retirement System between $50-70 billion since 1971.

The USPS has also overpaid the Federal Employees Retirement System by as much as $13 billion since 1984.

These funds have gone into the national treasury as income for the federal government. The USPS does not use any taxpayer money either.

The 2006 postal reform mandated that the USPS pre-fund 75 years of future employee health care benefits to be paid in 10 years, like paying your 30-year mortgage off in 4 years -- paying now for employees retiring in the year 2081, that have not even been born yet!

The USPS is the only government agency required to do this. The mandate has cost your Post Office $5.6 billion a year -- 80 percent of all losses by the USPS since 2006 is because of this insane mandate -- in fact this is already fully funded because of the 150,000 less employees than in 2006.

Five-day mail delivery is not the solution.

In fact, USPS's own study showed that mail volume would drop almost 11%, offsetting any savings and sending the USPS down the road of self-destruction.

This would also pose a great danger to the entire $1.3 trillion mailing industry and its 7.5 million jobs -- adding to the threat of another recession.

In fact, the USPS had a $100-200 million profit in the last quarter, if not for the prefunding mandate, mostly due to a 4.7% jump in parcel deliveries -- more than both Fed Ex and the UPS.

You can help save your postal service. Bills are now in Congress to help. Maintain 6-day delivery, end the prefunding mandate and bring modernization to the USPS for the future. It is long overdue that the USPS quit bailing out the government -- bankrupting itself doing so. We need your help.

Call Sen. Mike Johanns at 202-224-4224 and Sen. Deb Fisher at 202-224-6551. Tell them to co-sponsor and support Senate Bill S.316.

Call Sen. Adrian Smith at 202-225-6435. Tell him to co-sponsor and support the House bills -- HR 630, HR 961 and H.Res 30.

Tell them to end the unfair prefunding mandate. Tell them that you support 6-day mail delivery. The future of the Post Office depends on you. Don't wait -- call today.

On March 24, letter carriers across the nation gathered for a "Day of Action" for 6-day delivery. We need you to help us help you. Keep up to date on this issue and get the real facts at NALC.ORG.

Ken Nickerson, Kearney, Branch 312 President and Steward, National Association of Letter Carriers